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JEDPL Reviews: Casshern Sins
I'm sad. I'm sad about the weather, I'm sad about Mega Man's demise, I'm sad about my ex-girlfriend's breakdown, I'm sad about my SNES getting repossessed... *sigh* I'm sad about WWE, for it never will be the same with children watching. But you know... Most of all, I'm just deliberately sad about Friday, which is today. Why? Because I have to review this GOD-FORSAKEN ASSPOOL OF AN ANIME!!!! Ladies and gentleman, I am your Extreme Conquerer as always, Ouroburos. We are going to dive into Madhouse and Tatsunoko Production's 2008 anime, Casshern Sins, which is more or less a reboot of the 1973 series, Casshan. Is it good? Is it bad? All I know is this: get ready to start the Great Depression, sons of bitches, because I'll be reviewing a tearfest of an anime! Let's not waste any time... This is Casshern Sins! *crying* You wanna know what's also sad!? I have to attend the funeral of my pet rock!! Simon was like a brother to me, goddamnit! *crying* Alright, where was I? Ooooooh yeah! First and foremost, a little history: for those of you who didn't know, Casshern is a cybernetic superhero who, with the help of a robotic canine known as Friender, battled the nefarious forces of Braiking Boss. You know... These three inspired Mega Man, Rush, and Dr. Wily, respectively? What, none of you know what I'm talking about 'cuz I'm going off on a tangent? F***ing people! Anyhoo, the Casshern (or "Casshan", whatever you prefer) franchise has gone to become pretty popular in Japan alongside other Tatsunoko classics such as Gatchaman or the Time Bokan series. In fact, it's gotten SOOOO successful that it received a 1993 OVA known as Casshan: Robot Hunter and a live-action film released in 2004! Not only that, but along with several other characters owned by Tatsunoko and Capcom, the titular protagonist appeared in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (as well as the original version, by the way!) for the Nintendo Wii; which is a game I used to have, but for SOME BS reason, it either got trashed or stolen!! That pisses me off too, considering Casshern was one of my mains! And just to let you know, I have two accurate reasons why I'm reviewing Casshern Sins right here, right now; 1) Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and 2) I recently watched Casshern Sins on Adult Swim's Toonami. Enough jibber-jabber, fools!!! I wanna get this depression of an anime done and over wi---- *crying* My ex-girlfriend just got back together with me! I feel like crying, which is what I've done in the first fu--- *continues bawling eyes out until a certain Internet troll kicks me in the balls* OWWWW!!!!! Son of a.....! Casshern Sins does not share the same continuity with its original show, and thus features a few character changes as well as plot. For starters, Casshern is not so much a superhero now as much as he is a subordinate hired by the main antagonist, Braiking Boss. Casshern was ordered to assassinate the savior of mankind, the sun that was named moon... or in other, more cohesive words, Luna. After doing so, it appears that our cybernetic bastard pretty much doomed the Earth, resulting in a "My God, What Have I Done?" occurrence. And, *sighs*, yeah, I gotta refrain myself from reading TV Tropes... I CAN'T HELP IT!! TV Tropes ruined my life, so now I'm blessed with suck. *shrugs* A hundred years after Luna's "death", you'll see what I mean later, but... Ahundredyearsafterlolisupposedlydied, ohohoho, worldgetspoisonedandasaresulthumanityisnowonthebrinkofextinction, OOOOH, AAAHHH!!!! Phew, my God is it hard to perfect a Speed Racer impersonation! Robots also suffer from the Ruin, trying to find spare parts to replace the ones that have been affected, or else they cease to exist. Casshern has disappeared and now has amnesia, rarely knowing anything about himself or what he did. Mmm-hmm... The storyline is actually something I can follow with no difficulty whatsoever. It's a break from much of the shit I've been watching lately... but there's one tiny mishap: THE WRITING SUCKS GOAT PENIS!!!!!! It isn't what I'd call "beyond horrid", but when I first watched CS on Toonami, I wanted to bang my head on solid concrete after hearing MERELY bits of the dialogue. Sure enough, it fits the tone of the series, but the characters' voice actors deliver half of these lines as if they were fixing to cut themselves. I'm not saying these are amateurs, either; you have some of FUNimation's greatest VAs like Eric Vale (Casshern), Brina Palencia (Lyuze), and Jerry Jewell (Dio). But at the beginning of the anime, it's almost similar to listening to the most dullest Radiohead song! You might think I'm exaggerating quite a bit... I DO blame the writing moreso than the voice acting for that part; the original Japanese dub had this same problem as far as I know. While I enjoy taking a campy Tatsunoko project and transforming it into a Darker and Edgier show, there's rarely a sweet atmosphere in the tone of the series until, like, the final episode: Lyuze and Ohji might have suffered, but look at this way: Casshern, Friender, and Ringo can live the rest of their lives. Of course I probably forgot some other examples, but the way I see it, Casshern Sins is the equivalent of a 15-year-old Emo kid who is moved by robots and the post-apocalyptic world. The characters in the anime are practically Base Breakers, one way or another; Casshern may spend the majority of the show whining about "War bad, harmony good!", but when his eyes turn blue, get ready to feel psyched! Dio has this one desire to defeat Casshern, which earns him some points, but overall, for being named after the Italian word for God, you'd think he'd be more power-hungry and not.... well, a bore. Luna, well.... To be honest, she has nothing going for her other than being a trolling loli who faked her own death. Answer me this: how do you go from being the hero's boyfriend to a mysterious little girl? Despite its flaws, I will give Casshern Sins a few merits. Firstly, I love the visual style of the series (considering the character designer later went on to work on a certain Saint Seiya anime); it has a monochrome vibe combined with some fabulous-looking characters, the main character and Leda being prime examples in my book; for the Hell of it, Ringo lampshades this when regarding the former in the very first episode, no surprise! The animation gets another plus, as characters and various inanimate objects move with the elegance of Bruce Lee and Tony Montana's baby... Oookay, maybe I should rephrase that, but still, animation when it comes to fight sequences is genius on Madhouse's part; alongside Gainax and Production I.G, they remain one of my favorite animation studios in Japan!! Another thing I adore has to be the score, which is done by InuYasha and Samurai 7 composer Kaoru Wada. His music is very graceful, soft, and memorable, for it compliments the mood of CS. My top three anime composers are as follows: : 3. Kaoru Wada : 2. Taku Iwasaki : 1. Yoko Kanno You may not be #1, Wada, but your compositions still are top-notch. As for the opening and ending themes... Eeeeehhh, I'd say they're a mixed bag; on the one hand, I fell in love with Color Bottle's "Aoi Hana" as the opening theme and lauded the third closing song, Kunoshinji's "Hikari to Kage". The first ending, K^N^'s "reason", may be beautiful to the ears, but also a bit uninspired... As for the second closer, "Aoi Kage" by Masanori Sena, no comment; that was for one episode only! Final verdict Read the "Pros" and "Cons" section, everyone! I am Ouroburos.TheNewSaurian and I'll see you next week! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to... I have to--- *crying* WHY!?!?!?! Why did Soul Eater have to air on Toonami?! They could've aired something else... SOUL EATER'S TOO GOOD FOR THAT NETWOOOOOOOOOOOOORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pros *Madhouse delivers some genuine animation quality with the help of Tatsunoko. *The musical score (in-anime or opening/closing) rarely disappoints. *Character designs are appealing, too. *Turning a campy franchise into... THAT was a interesting concept, to say the least. Cons *Casshern Sins has a very neat storyline... plagued by awful writing!!! *Can somewhat be too melancholic in terms of what's being shown in episodes; *crying* Who ate my bagel!? *The voice cast that was chosen is alright, but some characters sound real bored outta their skulls! Category:Review